


Keeping Watch

by TeaNSympathy



Category: For the People (TV 2018)
Genre: Episode 4: The Library Fountain, Episode Related, Mental Health Issues, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 05:09:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17481806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaNSympathy/pseuds/TeaNSympathy
Summary: Chloe's case is over, but Jill has a hard time letting go.





	Keeping Watch

"Take care of Josie."

The first time Jill had heard it, she was eleven years old. For weeks she'd been lobbying her parents to let her go see "Escape from Witch Mountain" alone and finally, after weeks of listening to her very persuasive arguments,they'd acquiesced. On the condition that she take her eight-year-old sister along, to which Jill happily agreed. She'd bought them both popcorn with her saved allowance and found them excellent seats, right in the middle. Shortly after the movie started Josie'd let out an ear-piercing screech and beelined out the door, leaving a spray of flying popcorn in her wake. Jill had followed after her as quickly as she could, but by the time she got to the lobby Josie was nowhere to be seen. It took a half- hour of frantic searching and the help of the manager, but finally they found her, hiding under a seat in an empty theater. Jill's panic finally subsided as she took Josie's hand in hers and helped her crawl out. "Too scary" Josie whimpered, her small face tear- stained. Jill had wrapped her arms around her, vowing to herself that she would never let Josie out of her sight again.

The most recent time Jill had heard it was on her latest visit to her mother at the nursing home. "You'll take care of Josie, won't you, Jilly Bean?" her mother had asked as Jill was getting ready to leave. Her mother gets confused about some things, but Jill didn't think she'd forgotten that Josie has been missing for years. It's just that she expects her to come back. She always has before. Jill didn't want to worry her mother by sharing her concern over the fact that Josie had never been gone this long before, that the private investigator she'd hired kept coming up empty-handed, so she'd simply said, "Of course I will, Mom," leaning in to kiss her mother's soft cheek.

The first time Josie had disappeared, Jill was in her first year of law school. She'd returned to her apartment after Torts to find a hysterical message from her mother on her answering machine. Josie had vanished from the group home where she'd been living and no one knew where she'd gone. It had taken months of searching before they'd found her that time, living in Taos where she'd joined a cult.

The most recent time Josie had disappeared was five years ago. Jill had been at a Yankees game when, in the bottom of the second, her phone buzzed with a text from her mother. "Please call home. Now!" it read, and Jill knew without any further information, knew from the sick fear tightening her stomach, that her sister had gone missing again. She'd apologized quickly to Roger for having to miss the rest of the game as she gathered her things to leave. She could see the concern in his eyes as he'd asked if anything was wrong, but she'd brushed it off with a brisk "Something's come up." Neither of them ever mentioned her abrupt departure again. She assumes he'd assumed it was a work thing.

Jill doesn't remember the first time she cried over Josie, but the most recent time was outside Chloe Daniels' apartment. She'd promised to keep trying to get through to Chloe's son, knowing her efforts would likely make no difference. As she'd left, she couldn't help thinking of all the dangers that could befall a woman like Chloe. There were stoves left on, there were falls in the shower, there were intruders and muggers and the kind of despair that could drive someone to jump in front of a train. The grief and the worry had pressed down on her like a physical weight and she'd sunk to the floor, leaning against the wall. And there she'd sat, blinking back the tears, sat until her back ached and hunger started to gnaw at her middle, because as long as she was there she knew that Chloe was all right. That Chloe was safe. And because wherever Josie is, whether in Seattle or Honolulu or some dark corner of New York where they've been unable to find her, Jill hopes desperately that someone - a lawyer, a social worker, a friend- is keeping watch over Josie.


End file.
